A remote atoll in the Marshall Islands has launched virgin coconut oil processing, with the aim of shipping drums of oil to sell to the Majuro-based copra processing plant.
700 people on Namdrik Atoll get paid immediately for bringing coconuts to the processing facility instead of waiting months for payments for making copra.
Senator Mattlan Zackhras says with the new process, islanders just have to husk the nuts and bring them to the processor on Namdrik.
As a result of the development, the Namdrik Copra Cooperative is looking at how to generate money from the copra cake left from processing the coconuts, and looking to turn the shells into charcoal.
One coconut equals eight cents, 100 coconuts is $8.
